Only three people have been rescued alive from inside the shipThe ship was held in place by cranes as it was turned overDistraught relatives of some of the victims were briefed by the government on Saturday

Hooks were welded onto the ship and a net stretched around the entire structure in order to lift it by crane.

Most of the bodies retrieved were inside the vessel. State TV says the focus of the recovery operation is the top and bottom decks of the ship.

By first light on Friday, the ship could be seen lying on its side with its name visible just above the water.

Media captionThe Chinese authorities tried to prevent the BBC filming a protest by relatives of the boat passengers

Officials said there had been no further signs of life inside the ship, Xinhua news agency reports.

Chinese President Xi Jinping promised a thorough investigation into the cause of the disaster, after angry relatives protested at the scene.

Authorities tightly controlled access to the site, leading family members and journalists to complain about a lack of information.

The Eastern Star

The 76m-long, 2,200-tonne ship was named Dongfangzhixing in Chinese

It was carrying 405 passengers - mostly elderly tourists but also one three-year-old - as well as five travel agency employees and 46 crew members.

The ship is owned by the Chongqing Eastern Shipping Corporation, and passengers had booked their trip through a travel agency in Shanghai.

The cruise left the eastern city of Nanjing in April and was travelling to Chongqing in the south-west via the Three Gorges - a journey of at least 1,500km (930 miles).